Background

William Gray was a professor at Colorado State University, where he headed the Tropical Meteorology Project. William Gray passed away on April 16, 2016. [14]

Gray was vocal in his skepticism of global warming and was a featured speaker at the Heartland Institute's 2009 International Conference on Climate Change. He also appeared in a 2006 news release sponsored by Tech Central Station.

Gray has described global warming as a “hoax,” and something that “they've been brainwashing us [about] for 20 years.”

Peter Webster, a Georgia Institute of Technology professor, has been part of the anonymous peer review on several of Gray's National Science Foundation proposals. In every case he has turned down the global warming research component because he believed it was not up to standards, but recommended that Gray's hurricane research be funded.

Webster, who has co-authored other scientific papers with Gray, is also critical of Gray for his personal attacks on the scientists with whom he disagrees. “Bill, for some very good reasons, has been the go-to man on hurricanes for the last 35 years,” says Webster. “All of a sudden there are a lot of people saying things Bill doesn't agree with. And they're getting a lot of press—more press than I like, actually. I like the ivory tower. But he's become more and more radical.” [2]

Stance on Climate Change

“Gray acknowledges that we've had some warming the past 30 years. 'I don't question that,' he explains. 'And humans might have caused a very slight amount of this warming. Very slight. But this warming trend is not going to keep on going. My belief is that three, four years from now, the globe will start to cool again, as it did from the middle '40s to the middle '70s'.” [3]

“They've been brainwashing us for 20 years,” Gray says. “Starting with the nuclear winter and now with the global warming. This scare will also run its course. In 15-20 years, we'll look back and see what a hoax this was.” [3]

Key Quotes

“I think the whole human-induced greenhouse gas thing is a red herring… . I see climate change as due to the ocean circulation pattern. I see this as a major cause of climate change… . These are natural processes. We shouldn't blame them on humans and CO2.” [4]

“Colorado State University's William Gray, one of the nations preeminent hurricane forecasters, called noted Boulder climate researcher Kevin Trenberth an opportunist and a Svengali who 'sold his soul to the devil to get (global warming) research funding'.” [5]

“Gore believed in global warming almost as much as Hitler believed there was something wrong with the Jews.” [6]

“Human kind has little or nothing to do with the recent temperature changes. We are not that influential”[7]

William Gray was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's 2009 International Conference on Climate Change where he was described by the Heartland Institute as a “leading researcher into tropical weather patterns.”

Gray denied a link between global warming and the severity of hurricane seasons. “We don't think that's the case,” Gray says. “This is the way nature sometimes works.” See video below. [9]

September 28, 2005

Gray testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works (run by ranking member James Inhofe) on the subject of climate change.

Here is an excerpt from Gray's testimony:

“I am convinced that in 15-20 years, we will look back on this period of global warming hysteria as we now look back on so many other popular, and trendy, scientific ideas – such as the generally accepted Eugenic theories of the 1920s and 1930s that have now been discredited. There are so many other more important problems in the world which need our immediate attention. We should not be distracted by a false threat that is mostly just due to natural changes in climate.”

Gray concludes that “Analysis of global tropical cyclone activity of all intensities does not support the hypothesis that there has been a significant increase in tropical cyclone frequency-intensity associated with global temperature rise.” [10]

"Fossil-fuel companies have spent millions funding anti-global-warming think tanks, purposely creating a climate of doubt around the science. DeSmogBlog is the antidote to that obfuscation." ~ BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE